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A Calm at a Mediterranean Port

Creator

French Artist · 1714–1789

> He has stolen Nature's secret; whatever she produces, Vernet can recreate. > >--Denis Diderot, reviewing the Salon of 1763 A coach painter's son, Claude-Joseph Vernet first studied with his father, then with a painter in Aix-en-Provence. Supported by some of the region's art patrons, the young artist went to Rome in 1734, where he studied the works of Claude Lorrain and trained under a follower

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Date: 1770
Medium: Oil on canvas
Culture: French
Department: Paintings
Institution: Getty Museum

In brilliant detail, Claude-Joseph Vernet captured the gorgeous weather and leisurely activities of a day by the sea. Fishermen clean the day's catch on a stone pier while several people chat nearby, one of them pointing toward the large ship in the bay. Meanwhile, a man sits and smokes his pipe, the tobacco glowing a bright red. A cumulus cloud, perhaps the remnant of a distant storm, towers to the left of the setting sun. Warm tones of yellow, orange, and red predominate, suggesting a hazy sunset after a bright day. In *A Calm*, Vernet portrayed a completely peaceful scene in striking contrast to its pendant, [*A Storm on a Mediterranean Coast*](http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/133227/claude-joseph-vernet-a-storm-on-a-mediterranean-coast-french-1767/) . Taken together, the two works show, on the one hand, nature's benevolence, and on the other, nature's fury.

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